Five years ago, Dory Shields was living in a co-op in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, when she decided to try country living.
She sold the apartment and bought a house in Putnam Valley, about 50 miles north of Manhattan.
“Putnam Valley doesn’t have the same trajectory of housing prices as New York City does,” she said.
But a year ago, when her elderly landlord died, his heirs sold the house, and Ms. Shields had to move again.
As she hunted, she was finally able to sell the Putnam Valley house for $439,000.